Replacing Superstars: Alabama Running Back Eddie Lacy

It wasn’t easy for Trent Richardson to follow up the career of Mark Ingram, a Heisman Trophy winner at Alabama. Now, Alabama sophomore (soon to be junior) running back Eddie Lacy has the daunting task of following up after Trent Richardson, who was the main ball carrier for Alabama and a Heisman trophy finalist in his own right.

If you ask me, Lacy is primed to be an elite back in 2o12, and a first round graded player coming out himself. Lacy is listed at 6’1″ 220 pounds on ESPN.com, and with that size and an estimated speed of 4.4 seconds in the 40 yard dash, this is a guy that is athletically elite.

He should have no problem replacing Richardson next year with the offensive line returning almost completely in-tact. He’s also had two straight seasons of rushing over seven yards per carry, and while that doesn’t seem that unlikely due to the fact that he’s not received a ton of carries, also keep in mind that he’s run for over 1,000 yards on 151 career carries. Not to mention, he’s already got 13 career touchdowns.

It took Trent Richardson more than 100 more carries to get to 14 touchdowns, and after his sophomore year he was averaging just under six yards per carry while Lacy is averaging over seven.

Alabama once again has great depth at running back, so Lacy will not be over-utilized and beaten, but I see him being a touchdown machine and a Heisman candidate next year replacing two great running backs.